View full sizeMichael DeMocker, The Times-PicayuneHoly Cross is seeking to redevelop its former campus in the Lower 9th Ward, where the only permanent building remaining is the historic administration building, photographed in March.

The store would be owned and operated by a company whose principals include New Orleans-born actor Wendell Pierce and his childhood friend, management consultant Troy Henry, who have partnered to build more than 100 energy-efficient homes in Gentilly's storm-ravaged Pontchartrain Park.

Henry said the supermarket, one of four he and Pierce hope to bring to underserved New Orleans neighborhoods, would be the anchor tenant on the Holy Cross site, which has an asking price of $2.1 million. While the project remains a work in progress, he estimated that each store will cost about $2 million to build and will create 75 to 150 jobs.

"We've been working on this for quite a while" said Henry, who added that Chicago developer James Hatchett is also a partner. "We recognize that there are needs in this community, and grocery stores are among the most glaring.

"The guys we're working with are great developers. They have a good plan, and we like the plan. We haven't signed anything or finalized an agreement, but we're close on the terms."

An email that went out this week to nearby residents identifies the development team as Green Coast Enterprises, a local sustainable building firm founded after Hurricane Katrina, and Baltimore-based Seawall Development Co., which specializes in so-called "socially responsible development."

Seawall officials could not be reached Wednesday.

More details Thursday night

Green Coast President Will Bradshaw declined to comment, saying representatives of his company will discuss the development Thursday night at a meeting of the Holy Cross Neighborhood Association.

Henry said he plans to take part in the presentation at Greater Little Zion Missionary Baptist Church, 5130 Chartres St.

Seawall Development's signature project in Baltimore is Union Mill, an abandoned stone factory that the company re-created as a mixed-use building designed and managed specifically for nonprofit groups and teachers.

Locally, Green Coast has helped incorporate environmentally sensitive features in more than 200 home renovations and new homes financed by the Salvation Army's EnviRenew program. The company also serves as environmental consultant to Project Home Again, a nonprofit group backed by a $20 million pledge from the New York-based Riggio Foundation.

Last year, the state Bond Commission approved up to $20 million in tax-exempt bonds sought by Green Coast for a proposal to transform an abandoned Mid-City car dealership into a 120,000-square-foot mixed-use development.

The project, which fell through, was designed to house a grocery, retail space, a conference center and a 20,000-square-foot plot for manufacturing environmentally sensitive home wall paneling.

Quenching the 'food desert'

Pierce, who plays New Orleans trombonist Antoine Batiste in HBO's "Treme," discussed his grocery store initiative recently with the Washington Post during a visit to the White House.

Pierce said the idea was inspired, in part, by Michelle Obama's effort to bring more supermarkets to "food deserts," where residents lack easy access to fresh produce and meats. Grocers have historically been reluctant to open locations in poor neighborhoods, Pierce noted, citing problems with crime and transportation.

"This is the call to action that has gone out across the country," Pierce said in the Post interview. "We are not sitting on the sidelines."

The stores are slated to open under the banner Sterling Farms -- named for Henry's father, Sterling Joseph Henry Sr., who ran a pharmacy in the Lower 9th Ward.

Officials at the century-old Holy Cross School, which moved to a new home in Gentilly two years ago, announced in April that they were looking for a buyer to breathe life into their shuttered campus.

The school crafted three ambitious concepts to bring affordable housing to the dormant 16-acre site, which runs parallel to the Industrial Canal between St. Claude Avenue and the Mississippi River levee.

Each design proposes dozens of new dwellings for the still-recovering Holy Cross neighborhood, which adopted the school's name.

The common denominators in the three proposals are a community center and a trio of multistory residential structures near the water's edge that would be unique in the area.

It is unclear whether the proposed grocery development will include residential components.

School chips in

School officials say they have invested $300,000 in the redevelopment plan, drafted by local architect John Williams and the BNIM architecture firm based in Kansas City, Mo., a national leader in sustainable design.

Administrators, alumni and residents named to a committee overseeing the reimagining of the tree-lined college-style campus voted in February to hire commercial real estate firm Property One Inc. to act as the school's broker and agent.

Property One has established an asking price of $2.1 million for the entire site, including several parcels adjacent to or near the campus.

Although a final decision would be up to the new owner, Holy Cross administrators have said they would like to see the school's historic three-story administration building -- the only structure still standing on the campus -- incorporated into any future development.

The two-story brick building was erected in 1895, and two wings were added in 1912.